All of Us
by DarkestWolfx
Summary: All along it had been us. It had always been about family, about all of them. Now was just one of those times you were reminded of it. Spoilers for 'Up from the Depths' Part 2 (26/11/16).


This is just a short, entirely pointless piece I was inspired with the idea of.

* * *

Gordon had cheered up in the knowledge of Thunderbird Four's repair. Virgil seemed to feel all the better for seeing the younger, usual co-pilot in an elated mood. Even the space bound brother could see the change and he'd not _seen_ the before.

They were all glad John had travelled down. It was nice for them all to be together and John had felt that too. No matter how much he disliked gravity, especially after each time spent longer and longer free from it, family overrode everything. It would always pull him back down to Earth.

Alan was still distressed at the loss of the TV-21, something he'd been expressing to the elder pair as he sat on the table, lamenting. Scott could understand. He ultimately felt the same. Alan hadn't even known the ship as he had and the effect was like rippling aftershocks. You didn't have to always experience the earthquake… the aftershocks could be just as damaging.

Kayo appeared her calm and collected self despite relaying the tale of The Mechanic in Scotland, the fact she, Parker and Lady Penelope had nearly been blown to pieces hardly seeming to bother her, though internally the failure to physically _get_ The Mechanic would certainly be tearing her to shreds.

"We almost had it, Grandma. The TV-21 was so close!"

"Dad really loved that plane." Grandma simply put her arm around Alan. This involved her too; Jeff had been her son and these were her grandsons. By simply living on the Island, being there for them, she played her part in International Rescue, her part in the family of pilots. The old hat rested on her lap. She pulled Scott closer too as Virgil and Gordon sat down. Family moments like these were too few and ripped apart all too easily by the call of duty. They were worth valuing, noting, even if that be by the simplest of touches.

"In the end the TV-21 was just a bunch of steel and rivets. Your father would never have risked failing a mission just to save it." Scott could relate to that, as could Alan. They'd been the ones to face that choice. John could relate to that for he had been the one to give Scott the simple solution at the very start. It was stubbornness which stopped the eldest from enacting that despite all of the following hardship possibly being saved by the simplest of things. Not that it had seemed simple to make the decision then. "What he really loved was us."

Grandma was right there though and they all knew it. Jeff would love EOS and MAX too. For he did truly love each one of them in his own way, for individual and collective reasons. He would never stop loving them no matter what they did, where they went or even where he went. That love was eternal regardless as to whether the man was. Jeff had to hope they knew that. They had to hope it was true, that was as soon as they accepted it.

 _"All of us."_ The words were so easily expressed, so simple and monosyllabic in their nature though how powerful they seemed sent shivers through them all. The good kind of shivers though, the ones which made you realise something you knew but let fall aside. The one's which reminded you what was really important and chilled you to the bone because they hit a nerve you were hiding away with the intention of protection. But it was these very small things which made you see you couldn't always be closed off to the home-felt truths, the run of the mill ways of real love. You had to open yourself to that even if it might hurt. Because that was how the Tracy Empire was built. A family on an Island full of machines serving as a legacy. All of this was what Jeff Tracy had built lovingly and left for _all of us_. "His family."

Grandma set the hat on Alan's head. He'd never worn one before. It was worth starting now. The laughter echoed the circular sitting room, the chatter passing through the ticking sleeping hours, not a single one of them engaging in the act for the conversation was more important to them all, the moment for _all of us_ to be together: safe, happy, careless, together. As a family.

The dark mahogany desk was only passenger to the commotion, no instigator sitting in its vacant chair. It mattered although at the same time it was covered. They were all here, all of them together and whether the chair was left void or filled Jeff Tracy's presence still remained especially at times like this with all of them gathered.

For he was the man who made this family whole, who loved them all.

All of us… all living on the same forever standing family island, even if we're dead.


End file.
